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Draft:Don Juan McQueen

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  • Comment: We'd need a few more sources. Qcne (talk) 20:23, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

Don Juan McQueen was a revolutionary war veteran and later Spanish naval officer and privateer in Florida. He founded plantations along the St. Johns River close to modern day Jacksonville, Florida.

Don Juan McQueen
John McQueen
Born1751
Philadelphia, Province of Pennsylvania
DiedOctober 11, 1807
Spanish Florida
NationalityAmerica
CitizenshipAmerican, Spanish
Occupation(s)Sailor, Privateer, Planter
SpouseAnne McQueen

Early Life

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Born John McQueen in 1751 in Philadelphia, he would later move to Charleston, South Carolina, where he later became a land speculator. When the Revolutionary War began, he became a captain in the South Carolina Navy.[1] While in the Navy he regularly was in contact with men such as the Marquis de Lafayette.[2]

Move to Spanish Florida

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By 1789 John McQueen had obtained a small plantation in Georgia with his wife Anne. However, he did continually have immense tax debts that he could not pay. This led him to flee across the border to Spanish Florida. He then Converted to Catholicism and changed his name to Don Juan McQueen. His wife would never join him in Florida as she refused to convert to Catholicism.[1]

He then spent his career defending Spanish Florida from American expansionism with diplomacy and military skill. He was awarded various lands in Florida concentrated in the Northeast, where he built the plantation house at what later became known as Kingsley Plantation.[3]

Urban Legends

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McQueen's swashbuckling legend has led to many urban legends in the First Coast region of buried treasure, especially on Ortega Island where he once had a plantation.

References

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  1. ^ a b LANE, MARCIA. "Marker dedicated for Don Juan McQueen". St. Augustine Record. Retrieved 2024-02-01.
  2. ^ Hartridge, Walter Charlon (1949). THE LETTERS OF ROBERT MACKAY TO HIS WIFE. University of Georgia Press. pp. xxviii. ISBN 0-8203-3538-X.
  3. ^ "Chronology of Kingsley Plantation". Chronology of Kingsley Plantation. April 14, 2015. Retrieved February 1, 2024.